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Bhat (black soybean) under the genus Glycine, is cultivated for food, fodder and medicinal uses by rural communities in Asia particularly, in China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia and India. In the Himalayan region of India, this legume is not only an integral part of a climate resilient farming system but also finds place in ethnodietary recipes and fondly consumed as a pulse. Black soybean ensures both food and nutritional security in hills where nutritional deficiencies are in abundance among rural, tribal and backward population engaged in subsistence farming in marginal rainfed terrains. Cultivation of black soybean is less capital intensive. Its ability to survive under harsh conditions particularly, in the event of failure of rain, makes it a better choice than other competitive crops grown during rainy season. Despite its enormous potentials, the legume has not gained the popularity in India and presently, area under this valuable legume is confined to North Himalayan hill region and scattered pockets of central India. Its high nutritive value, remedial and health promoting effects due to presence of various bioactive compounds make this legume an excellent functional food. Present review summarises the potential role of black soybean for human nutrition and health benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally maize is the second most important crop in terms of acreage where as in India it ranks third after wheat and rice. Maize productivity has been breaking unprecedented barriers owing chiefly to wide scale cultivation of high yielding hybrids. Sustaining high yields of hybrids necessitates continued efforts for creation of novel gene assemblages and/or discovery of such naturally existing constellations. Traditional local cultivars are an important source of the latter. Kwanu Local is an example of such a traditional cultivar that contributes significantly towards sustaining food, fodder and fuel requirement of Jaunsari tribal community of Kwanu cluster in Dehradun district of Uttarakhand. It is a tall, high yielding, medium duration, semi-dent yellow bold-grained cultivar and owes its characteristic present form to multiple infusions from diverse populations that have taken place over the long history of its cultivation in the region. Its cultivation over a vast contiguous expanse and the selection practices followed by the farming community ensure maintenance of high heterozygosity in the population, assuring sustained high yields. The cultivar possesses many desirable features that make it a potential genetic resource for a variety of traits of agronomic importance (cob length, cob girth, number of kernels/row and kernel size). Its use for increasing kernel size has been well demonstrated. Kernel size in the backcross progenies involving inbreds VQL 1 (255 g) and V 400 (215 g) as recipients and Kwanu Local (343 g) as donor exhibited kernel size range of 260-293 g (VQL 1 x Kwanu Local) and 228-245 g (V 400 x Kwanu Local), showing increase of 6-14 and 2-15%, respectively, in the two crosses. With its local adaptability and high yield coupled with other desirable traits, Kwanu Local holds potential as a promising genetic resource for maize improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] is major oilseed crop globally. It is grown in diverse agro-ecological conditions and the performance of quantitative traits often varies due to significant genotype × environment interaction (GEI) therefore, the integration of yield and stability is one of the common objective of soybean breeding. The present investigation was carried out to study genotype × environment interaction (GEI) through GGE biplot and AMMI analysis over four environments (Majhera, Palampur, Bajaura and Almora) with 32 genetically diverse genotypes for four traits viz., grain yield, days to 50% flowering, days to maturity and 100 seed weight under rainfed condition of North Western Himalayan hills using randomised complete block design. The analysis of variance revealed that environments (E), genotypes (G) and genotype × environment interactions (GEI) accounted about 19.61%, 26.18% and 40.71% of the total variation, respectively. GGE biplot graphically displayed interrelationships between test locations as well as genotypes and facilitated visual comparisons through two-dimensional biplot between the first two principal components (PCI and PCII) which explained 74.40% variation for grain yield, 91.98% for days to 50% flowering, 83.27% for days to maturity and 84.68% for 100 seed weight. The GGE biplot suggested suitability of all the four test locations to be used for multi-location trials on the basis of discrimination ability and representativeness. Genotypes, 'C 17' ('PS 1556') was found the best performing genotypes in terms of grain yield followed by 'C 11' ('VLS 89'), 'C 4' ('PS 1550') and 'C 10' ('DS 3102') whereas, in terms of high grain yield and stability both 'C 11' ('VLS 89') was found as the ideal genotype. In the test locations Majhera, Palampur and Almora, winning genotypes for grain yield were 'C 17' ('PS 1556') and 'C 11' ('VLS 89') while, 'C 34' ('VLS 59') was the winning genotype at Bajaura. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relationship between grain yield and its component traits can improve the efficiency of breeding programs by determining appropriate selection criteria. An investigation was carried out on barnyard millet (Echinochloa spp.) global germplasm collection to investigate the association among yield components and their direct and indirect effects on the grain yield of barnyard millet. The experiment was conducted in 2011 and 2012 in augmented and alpha lattice design, respectively. The results of correlation coefficients indicated that grain yield had high significant and positive association with flag leaf width and culm thickness during both years, whereas negative association of grain yield was observed with basal tillers and peduncle length. Simple path analysis indicated high direct effects of panicle exertion, flag leaf sheath length, flag leaf width and days to maturity in 2011; and flag leaf width and raceme number in 2012. However, these high direct estimates were biased due to multicolinearity. Therefore, ontogeny based sequential path analysis was used to establish the causal relationships determining grain yield in barnyard millet. Based on the results over the years, culm thickness and raceme number were found to be important traits for indirect selection. The other important traits suggested for inclusion in selection index were inflorescence length, plant height, flag leaf length, inflorescence width and number of basal tillers per plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underutilized legumes are important group of crops which has special significance in subsistence farming and nutritional security of resource poor masses in developing countries. Among underutilized legumes, horsegram (Macrotyloma uniflorum), family Fabaceae is one of the minor or lesser known neglected legume mainly cultivated in Asian and African countries as a dual purpose crop. It is a climate resilient legume which is well known for its drought hardiness and embraces favourable agronomic features suitable for cultivation on dry lands under poor fertility condition. It is comparable to other commonly consumed pulses in its nutritional value and serves as a cheap source of nutrition for unprivileged rural communities residing in inaccessible areas. Horsegram has excellent therapeutic properties and traditionally used to cure kidney stones, asthma, bronchitis, leucoderma, urinary discharges, heart diseases, piles etc. Besides, it also possess anti-diabetic, anti-ulcer activity and also helps in dietary management of obesity due to the presence of beneficial bioactive compounds. In the present review nutritional composition, antinutritional factors, medicinal properties and its possibilities to be exploited as functional/ medicinal food for health benefits are summarised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]